Monday, June 22, 2009

Man, there are a lot of off days in June. In April and May, we had only two each. Then suddenly in June, we're hit with four in a fifteen-day span. Which means more rest, more deadlines to come up with something creative, and more puzzles for the players, for Sax and I, and for you all, respectively.

And they seem to have gotten somewhat more difficult as well. After receiving double-digit correct answers for each of the first three puzzles, none of the last four hit that mark, culminating in a season-low five correct solutions for last week's sound-it-out puzzle. Hopefully today's will be a bit more accessible, but I can never tell.

Anyways, those are just some random puzzle musings. Here's today's brain teaser:

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Look for the signs within number nine,
Looking at eight? Stop wasting your time.
Seven’s in past, yet offers no clue,
Six speaks of four, but is useless like two.
Five is reflective back onto itself,
Four may run long, but that doesn’t help;
Three planned to help out, alas it forgot,
But signs are forthcoming? Apparently not.

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Hint #1 (8:40am): 4,1,2,3,3,1,1,2,2,2,2,3,3,2,3,3,4,3,3,1,3

Hint #2 (10:18am): The 1st step is to figure out what each line of the poem refers to; then the 2nd step is to figure out what the puzzle is asking. Most of the lines provide some hint as to what they refer to.

Hint #3 (11:38am): Neither the numbers in the poem, the numbers in Hint #1, nor the puzzle methodology itself has anything to do with baseball.

Hint #4 (1:17pm): It's in courier type so you can easily tell which line is the longest...

Puzzle Rules: The answer to the puzzle is a Dodger player. Comment freely in the thread, but if you have the solution, please don't give it away to everyone in the comments section. Instead, do the following:

Email us with the first and last name of the answer, along with your reasoning (submitted answers with only the player's name, without an explanation, will not be accepted. Likewise, correct answers arrived at via luck or the wrong reasoning count for participation credit only). And please include your screen name somewhere in the email; and

Post a comment simply saying you have emailed your solution attempt. I may not be able to reply to your original email promptly, so please be patient and check back on the comment thread for the latest news; I may confirm correct answers there.

You have until midnight PT tonight to submit your answer. Good luck!

Not familiar with SoSG's off-day puzzle competition? Read up here. And join the fun!

Hmmm, these hints are not helping me too much. In the new hint 2, I believe I had already got the first step, but it's circular, so to speak, so I've got nowhere to go. And, unless there's something I'm missing here, the 2nd step is, well, sure - of course, we've got to figure out what the riddle is asking. That's the whole problem!

Well, I guess others will figure it out, or there'll be more hints later in the day.

Most people seem to agree that "all" modifies "they", though it can also be more than one part of speech at the same time. Many also think that the location of "all" changes what kind of modifier it is. Anymore detail than that will just make my head hurt more than usual.